Alright, Tortugans, here it is, the much-awaited Fitness Standards! Our initial Swole Summer fitness challenge was focused on compound lifts, which in my opinion are key building blocks of overall fitness. But, as was stated in the initial announcement, the entirety of your physical fitness cannot be assessed simply by how much you bench. I’ve broken down the standards into five categories:
Physiological Markers
These are physiological metrics, some of which require a blood test. I tried to only include metrics that would indicate a problem not immediately apparent from looking at yourself in the mirror (like being a fatass), but which can mostly be corrected with certain diet and lifestyle changes. For example, I tend to have elevated blood pressure because I’m a cortisol-maxxer, which I’m alleviating with a regimen of mindfulness and meditation practices.
Each Physiological marker has a brief explanation of what it indicates, as well as a “minimum” score to avoid danger and an “ideal” score to facilitate optimal health. They are as follows:
Resting Heart Rate
Your resting heart rate is an indicator of how efficiently your heart works. It’s important that you take this measurement from a true resting state, i.e., as soon as you wake up. Otherwise it will be way too high (because you’re not resting) and you will freak yourself out. If you have a Fitbit or similar device with a heart rate monitor built in, you can just check it first thing in the morning.
Minimum: 80 bpm
Ideal: less than 60 bpm
Blood Pressure
Like heart rate, blood pressure is a measure of your overall heart health, and high blood pressure can lead to serious problems.
Minimum: less than 130/90
Ideal: 120/80
Fasting Glucose
A fasting glucose of over 100 mg/dL means you are at risk for diabetes. So that’s the minimum. Ideally, you should be between 70 and 85 to avoid developing metabolic dysfunction.
Minimum: less than 100 mg/dL
Ideal: 70 to 85 mg/dL
Trig/HDL Ratio
For a long time, cholesterol was a bogeyman in the health industry, but more recently researchers have realized that there is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. In order to properly determine your metabolic or cardiovascular risk from “cholesterol,” a better measure is to divide your triglyceride count by your HDL count.
Minimum: less than 2.0
Ideal: less than 1.0
Vitamin D Levels
Vitamin D is an important component of mood regulation, which is why you should go outside and touch grass (Vitamin D is produced naturally through exposure to UVB light from the sun).
Minimum: 20 ng/mL
Ideal: 40 to 60 ng/mL
Mobility
I included “Mobility” as a category to ensure that it wasn’t neglected, but it is a hard one to quantify. Mobility is a critical foundation for all other fitness activities, because it’s a measure of your joints’ and muscles’ ability to move through a full range of motion. If you don’t have a full range of motion, your body will overcompensate by moving suboptimally (i.e., Bad Form), which is the number one cause of injuries. For example, the deadlift often gets a bad reputation as a “dangerous” exercise, but a properly performed deadlift is not dangerous at all. Your back muscles might be sore afterward, but that is the intended effect. That means it’s working! However, if you lack hamstring mobility, the tendency will be to round your back while pulling the bar off the floor. This is a great way to injure your spine, particularly at heavy weights.
“Range of motion” isn’t a category that lends itself well to discrete minimums, but there is a diagnostic tool called the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) to assess a person’s mobility.
Here is a short video of someone performing all seven FMS tests. This for sure goes in the “minimum” category. Here are some other useful metrics for general mobility testing:
You should be able to perform a dead-arm hang for at least 1 minute.
You should be able to pop a Slav squat (with your heels on the ground) for at least 3 minutes.
You should be able to touch your toes without bending your knees.
There are probably some other good metrics out there, but really, training mobility comes down to remembering to include stretching, foam rolling, and ideally some kind of flexibility practice like yoga into your overall programming.
The remaining three categories are the core of the standards. They include Max Strength, Strength Endurance, and Cardiovascular Endurance. Each exercise has a minimum value, which represents the absolute bare minimum you should be able to perform as an adult human male. Then, there are categories for “novice,” “intermediate,” and “advanced,” which are basically just for bragging rights.
A Note on Minimums: As stated in the initial announcement, you are not going to get kicked out of Tortuga for failing to meet the standards. The point of the standards is to serve as a diagnostic tool for you to determine where your deficiencies lie. Minimum values represent, as the name would imply, the absolute minimum performance for a given activity. If you cannot meet the minimum in a given area, you have a major deficiency, and fixing it needs to be your top priority. For example, even if you are an elite powerlifter, if you can’t run a mile, this represents a deficiency that it would behoove you to address rather than another five pounds on your 400-pound bench press.
Max Strength
Maximal strength represents your ability to exert maximum force in a single effort. Therefore, max strength is best measured using a traditional “1 rep max,” which represents the most weight you can move. Maximum strength is not the be-all and end-all of fitness, but it is foundational to other functional training and is therefore listed first.
Max strength is also the only item on the Fitness Standards that does require equipment. This is unavoidable because in order to assess how much weight you can move, you must have a standardized tool with which you can increase the amount of weight moved. The traditional compound barbell lifts are the best way to train and test max strength.
Barbell Squat
Minimum: 75% of bodyweight
Novice: 125% of bodyweight
Intermediate: 175% of bodyweight
Advanced: 225% of bodyweight
Overhead Press
Minimum: 35% of bodyweight
Novice: 55% of bodyweight
Intermediate: 80% of bodyweight
Advanced: 100% of bodyweight
Bench Press
Minimum: 50% of bodyweight
Novice: 100% of bodyweight
Intermediate: 125% of bodyweight
Advanced: 150% of bodyweight
Deadlift
Minimum: 100% of bodyweight
Novice: 150% of bodyweight
Intermediate: 200% of bodyweight
Advanced: 250% of bodyweight
Strength Endurance
Being able to pick up a heavy thing once is great, but in most real-world scenarios, a certain amount of strength endurance is also necessary. This is your muscles’ ability to sustain moderate activity for extended periods without fatigue. For this reason, a good measure of your strength endurance is your ability to perform a high number of bodyweight exercises in a single set.
Push-Ups
Minimum: 20
Novice: 50
Intermediate: 75
Advanced: 100
Pull-Ups
Minimum: 5
Novice: 12
Intermediate: 20
Advanced: 25
Bodyweight Squats
Minimum: 50
Novice: 100
Intermediate: 100 (in under 2 minutes)
Advanced: 200 (in under 4 minutes)
Sit-Ups
Minimum: 20
Novice: 50
Intermediate: 100
Advanced: 120
Plank
Minimum: 1 minute (on elbows)
Novice: 2 minutes (on elbows)
Intermediate: 2 minutes (on hands)
Advanced: 3 minutes (on hands)
Cardiovascular Endurance
Cardiovascular endurance is slightly different from strength endurance, as it is a measure of how efficiently your heart, lungs, and blood vessels perform during aerobic exercise (running, cycling, swimming, etc.). There are many different ways to train cardio other than running (obviously, I just named some), but for “standards” purposes, we are going to index on running. Running requires no equipment, and you can just go outside and do it (although having the right shoes is a game-changer).
Run (for Speed)
Minimum: 1 mile under 9 minutes
Novice: 1 mile under 8 minutes
Intermediate: 1 mile under 7 minutes
Advanced: 1 mile under 6 minutes
Run (for Distance)
Minimum: Complete a 5K (no walking)
Novice: 5K in 25 minutes
Intermediate: 10K in 48 minutes
Advanced: marathon in 4.5 hours
And there you have it, gentlemen, the Tortuga Fitness Standards. For our members, we will be providing a rubric (pinned in the Fitness forum) that you can use to assess how your current fitness levels measure up, as well as tailored guidance for those looking to improve in specific areas. If you want to gain access to this and all the other fantastic resources offered by the Tortuga Society, become a member today!
Ran a 7:40 mile this morning. Believe it or not, I’m fairly pleased with that.